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Sunday, March 04, 2018

Day 21: Professor Delogu on giving BIW/GD $60 million

By Orlando Delogu

1.This legislation was not a legislative
carry-over; it was not the product of Legislative committee or Executive office
thinking.GD/BIW and its legal lobbyists
drafted LD 1781 in early January.It was
rammed into the short 2nd session by the leadership in violation of legislative
rules.The talking points for sponsors
of this LD come directly from these same corporate lobbyists.

2.The legislation talks of preserving jobs, but
it allows employment to sink from present levels (approx. 5,500) to below 4,000
and they still get the money.

3.The legislation talks of $100 million of new
investment, but defines new investment so broadly that almost all shipbuilding
expenses qualify as “new investment.”It
assumes we can’t see through this scam.

4.Amendments breaking this tax give-away into
two $30 million packages change none of the substantive provisions—GD/BIW still
winds up with $60 million in two bites instead of one.

5. The veiled threat that GD/BIW
is in a competitive market and may leave Maine if this subsidy is not granted
permeates every discussion of LD 1781—IT’S A LIE unless one assumes that GD/BIW
is prepared to walk away from a $500 million operating plant, a 10 year backlog
of work, a trained work force, and extraordinary profits that will extend far
into the future ($3 billion in 2017).COMMON SENSE SAYS NONE OF THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

As for competition—BIW and
Ingalls have divided navy ship building contracts for decades; they will
continue to do so.That’s what the navy
wants.

6.In the face of these realities, the hubris of
the corporation’s demand for $60 million from relatively poor Maine Taxpayers is
best seen in the CEO’s $21 million annual salary, and her boast, “Boeing makes
airplanes, GD/BIW makes profits.”Yes
they do—obscene profits.

In short, Maine needs the $60
million far more than GD/BIW.Every fact
cries out for a NO vote on LD 1781, or a veto by the Governor who continually
touts his fiscal responsibility.If our
political leaders can’t find the courage to say NO, a people’s veto is surely in
order.

~
Orlando Delogu of Portland is emeritus professor of law at the University of
Maine School of Law and a longtime public policy consultant to federal, state,
and local government agencies and officials.